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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday March 25 2020, @06:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the is-fake-meat-just-feet? dept.

Impossible CEO says it can make a meat 'unlike anything that you've had before'

Plant-based meat products are bigger than ever, with the fast-food industry, grocery stores, and upscale restaurants coming on board. A recent Nielsen report found that plant-based meat alternative purchases went up 279.8 percent last week after Americans were instructed to stay home during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant-based meat products, says its mission is to someday replace the incumbent meat industry entirely, stating that, from a mission standpoint, a sale only has value if it comes at the expense of the sale of an animal-derived product.

But what if plant-based meat wasn't just a substitute for an already-existing marketplace, and instead, it started to make meat that has never existed?

On this week's Vergecast podcast, Impossible Foods CEO Patrick Brown talks to Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel about how this impossible meat could be a possibility in the future, even if it doesn't make sense for the company right now.

https://dilbert.com/strip/1992-04-08

Previously: Impossible Burger Lands in Some California Grocery Stores
Burger King Grilled by Vegan Over Impossible Burger "Meat Contamination"

Related: 'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist Mulls 'Taboo Against Cannibalism' Ending as Lab-Grown Meat Improves
Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants
Swedish Behavioral Scientist Suggests Eating Humans to 'Save the Planet'
Discriminating Diets Of Meat-Eating Dinosaurs
Meat Industry PR Campaign Bashes Plant-Based Meat Alternatives
Unilever Pushing for Plant-Based Meat
Judge Serves Up Sizzling Rebuke of Arkansas' Anti-Veggie-Meat Labeling Law


Original Submission

Related Stories

'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist Mulls 'Taboo Against Cannibalism' Ending as Lab-Grown Meat Improves 81 comments

'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist mulls 'taboo against cannibalism' ending as lab-grown meat improves

What if human meat is grown? Could we overcome our taboo against cannibalism?"
- @RichardDawkins - 6:15 AM - 3 Mar 2018

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/969939225180364805
https://archive.fo/kSmgi

"Lab-grown 'clean' meat could be on sale by end of 2018, says producer"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-grown-available-restaurants-2018-global-warming-greenhouse-emissions-a8236676.html

"'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist mulls 'taboo against cannibalism' ending as lab-grown meat improves"
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/6/richard-dawkins-mulls-taboo-against-cannibalism-en/

and:

https://www.nationalreview.com/blog/corner/richard-dawkins-eating-human-meat-cannibalism-taboo/


Original Submission

Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants 58 comments

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Meatless 'Beyond Burgers' come to Carl's Jr. restaurants

The competition in lab-made veggie burgers is heating up. Beyond Meat has brought its burgers to more than 1,000 Carl's Jr. locations in the US, marking its Beyond's largest restaurant deal to date. Order a $6.29 Beyond Famous Star and you can eat a vegetarian (sorry vegans, there's American cheese) burg that tastes much like its conventional beef counterparts. You can also pay $2 to add a Beyond patty to other burgers on the menu. [...] You can already eat Impossible burgers of various sizes at White Castle, Hopdoddy, [and] Umami Burger

The veggie burgers won't be available at Hardee's (a nearly identical fast food chain operated by the same parent company). Sorry, "flexitarians".

Big Beef Prepares For Battle, As Interest Grows In Plant-Based And Lab-Grown Meats

The U.S. meat industry is gigantic, with roughly $200 billion a year in sales, and getting larger. But the industry faces emerging threats on two fronts: plant-based meat substitutes and actual meat grown in labs. Plant-based meat substitutes are a lot more, well, meaty than they used to be. They sear on the grill and even "bleed." They look, taste and feel in the mouth a lot like meat. Savannah Blevin, a server at Charlie Hooper's, an old-school bar and grill in Kansas City, Mo., says the vegetarian Impossible Burgers on the menu are popular with the meat-eating crowd. "I had a vegetarian actually turn it away, because it reminded them so much of meat, they sent it back," says Blevins. "It's delicious," she adds.

The industry that makes these products is taking off, growing 20 percent a year. "Business is booming," says Todd Boyman, co-founder of food company Hungry Planet. "We just can't keep up. We're actually having to expand our production facilities to keep up with the demand that's out there for this type of food."

[...] The meat industry is focused on shaping the regulatory environment for its new competitors, taking into account lessons learned from the rise of plant-based milks.

Previously: Would You Try Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger(s)?
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"

Related: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"
Missouri Regulates Use of the Word "Meat" by Food Producers


Original Submission

Swedish Behavioral Scientist Suggests Eating Humans to ‘Save the Planet’ 75 comments

A Swedish behavioral scientist has suggested that it may be necessary to turn to cannibalism and start eating humans in order to save the planet.

Appearing on Swedish television to talk about an event based around the "food of the future," Magnus Söderlund said he would be holding seminars on the necessity of consuming human flesh in order to stop climate change.

Environmentalists blame the meat and farming industry for a large part of what they claim is the warming of the earth.

According to Söderlund, a potential fix would be the Soylent Green-solution of eating dead bodies instead.

https://summit.news/2019/09/04/swedish-behavioral-scientist-suggests-eating-humans-to-save-the-planet/

[Ed note: At first I was going to give this story a pass and then, well... this site is called SoylentNews said name being tangentially related to Soylent Green and the tag line is: "SoylentNews is people", so it only goes to follow that you are what you eat, right? Feel free to comment seriously, but I'm quite frankly more interested in what kind of fun the community can have with this story! Some jokes just write themselves. --martyb]


Original Submission

Impossible Burger Lands in Some California Grocery Stores 18 comments

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20869271/impossible-burger-foods-gelsons-markets-southern-california-meat-free-plant-based

The Impossible Burger, a meat-free burger that's previously only been available in restaurants, will be available to buy in grocery stores for the first time this week. Starting tomorrow, September 20th, you'll be able to buy the plant-based burger in 27 Gelson's Markets stores in Southern California. Impossible Foods says it will bring the burger to more grocery stores — including some on the East Coast — later this month, and it plans to reach every region of the US by the middle of next year.

The launch brings Impossible Foods into even closer competition with Beyond Meat, which already sells its own meat-free burger in grocery stores in addition to restaurants. When it announced its latest burger back in June, Beyond Meat said that it was available to purchase in stores, including Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway, Publix, Wegmans, Target, and Sprouts. Compared to this list of chains, Impossible Foods is lagging behind in selling its burgers directly to home cooks.

It's a 12 oz slab of fake ground beef, not yet shaped into patties.


Original Submission

Discriminating Diets Of Meat-Eating Dinosaurs 10 comments

A big problem with dinosaurs is that there seem to be too many meat-eaters. From studies of modern animals, there is a feeding pyramid, with plants at the bottom, then plant-eaters, and then meat-eaters at the top.

A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, published in the journal Palaeontology, shows that dinosaurian meat-eaters, the theropod dinosaurs, specialised a great deal, and so broadened their food base.

The big ones, such as Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurs Rex, fed on other dinosaurs. But there were also lots of small meat-eaters that probably fed on other animals such as lizards and mammals. And some of the theropods even became plant-eaters.

[...] The analyses separated out three groups—the large dinosaur-eaters, the small carnivores and the herbivores. In particular, the tyrannosaurs such as T. rex were quite distinct—they had deeper jaws and more powerful teeth than any of the other theropods, and so had evidently evolved particular ways of dealing with large prey.

The other key finding is that the maniraptoriform theropods—those most closely related to birds—show the greatest amount of variation in jaw shapes. This suggests, but does not prove, that they had the greatest range of functions.

Morphological disparity in theropod jaws: comparing discrete characters and geometric morphometrics, Palaeontology (DOI: 10.1111/pala.12455)


Original Submission

Burger King Grilled by Vegan Over Impossible Burger "Meat Contamination" 84 comments

Lawsuit claims Burger King's Impossible Whoppers are contaminated by meat

Burger King was sued on Monday by a vegan customer who accused the fast-food chain of contaminating its meatless "Impossible" Whoppers by cooking them on the same grills as its traditional meat burgers.

In a proposed class action, Phillip Williams said he bought an Impossible Whopper, a plant-based alternative to Burger King's regular Whopper, at an Atlanta drive-through, and would not have paid a premium price had he known the cooking would leave it "coated in meat by-products."

The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court seeks damages for all U.S. purchasers of the Impossible Whopper, and an injunction requiring Burger King to "plainly disclose" that Impossible Whoppers and regular burgers are cooked on the same grills.

[...] Its website describes the Impossible Burger as "100% Whopper, 0% Beef," and adds that "for guests looking for a meat-free option, a non-broiler method of preparation is available upon request."

Also at Boing Boing.

Previously: Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants
Burger King Adds Impossible Vegan Burger To Menu
Plant-Based "Impossible Burger" Coming to Every Burger King Location

Related: Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"
Following IPO of Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods Plans Launch of its Own Meatless Products
Impossible Burger Lands in Some California Grocery Stores


Original Submission

Meat Industry PR Campaign Bashes Plant-Based Meat Alternatives 58 comments

Plant-based burgers are "ultra-processed" like dog food, meat-backed ads say

A public-relations firm backed by meat producers has unleashed a savage marketing campaign that claims plant-based meat alternatives are unhealthy, "ultra-processed imitations" similar to dog food.

The campaign rolled out in recent weeks from the industry-funded firm Center for Consumer Freedom, according to The New York Times. So far, it has included full-page ads and opinion pieces in mainstream newspapers, including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. All the marketing material raises health concerns about trendy meat alternatives, such as the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger.

One ad posed the question "What's hiding in your plant-based meat?" Another directed readers to take the quiz "Veggie Burger or Dog Food?"

In an op-ed, the managing director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, Will Coggin, labeled meat alternatives as "ultra-processed" foods and noted that a recent study led by the researchers at the National Institutes of Health linked ultra-processed foods to weight gain.

The negative marketing campaign comes amid soaring popularity of meat alternatives, which threaten to slice into the meat market's sales and profits. In recent months, big players in the meat industry had tried a different—some might say hypocritical—tactic to compete with the new comers—that is, they released their own lines of meat alternatives. Now, the industry wants consumers to think such alternatives are unhealthy.

Older stories:


Original Submission

Unilever Pushing for Plant-Based Meat 107 comments

"A meat-eater with a bicycle is much more environmentally unfriendly than a vegetarian with a Hummer."
--Dr Mark Post

The world's largest food concern, Unilever, has opened a new research lab at the world's most prestigious agricultural university, the University of Wageningen (the Netherlands). Unilever will locate all elements of its foods R&D there. A spokeswoman on Dutch radio stressed plant-based meat alternatives as an important research subject.

Wageningen University has strong credentials in that respect, with the development of shear cell technology.

Shear cell technology strings plant proteins together in tightly controlled fibers, resulting in a meat substitute where texture (fibrousness, bite, mouthfeel) can easily be controlled, and changed at will. This, combined with 3D food printing, offers the possibility of creating multiple meat (substitute) variations in future.

Unilever's food campus is open to startups, innovators and partners. One of the first to have build its own lab on the same grounds is Symrise, an industrial flavours and scents group.

About half of Dutch people call themselves 'flexitarians'. This means that they don't eat meat with their main meal at least three times a week. The proportion of vegetarians is stable, at just under five percent of the Dutch population.

Wageningen researchers believe, however, that feeding 9 billion people with animal meat will not be sustainable for the planet.


Original Submission

Judge Serves Up Sizzling Rebuke of Arkansas’ Anti-Veggie-Meat Labeling Law 75 comments

A federal judge on Tuesday roasted Arkansas' law banning makers of meatless meat products from using words such as "burger," "sausage," "roast," and "meat" in their labeling.
[...] Judge Kristine Baker, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from enforcing the law while the legal case is ongoing. In her order, Judge Baker made clear that the law appears to violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment—as Tofurky argued. She determined that the state will likely lose the case.
[...] "The State argues that Tofurky's labels for its plant-based products are inherently misleading because they use the names and descriptors of traditional meat items but do not actually include the product they invoke, including terms like 'chorizo,' 'hot dogs,' 'sausage,' and 'ham roast,'" Judge Baker noted. Such misleading or false labels would not be protected commercial speech under the First Amendment, the state claimed.

But Judge Baker essentially called that argument bologna.
[...] She went on to cite a ruling in a similar case that determined that "Under Plaintiffs' logic, a reasonable consumer might also believe that veggie bacon contains pork, that flourless chocolate cake contains flour, or that e-books are made out of paper."

"That assumption is unwarranted," she went on. "The labels in the record evidence include ample terminology to indicate the vegan or vegetarian nature of the products."
[...] Meat and dairy industry groups have been increasingly working to try to limit the use of terms like "milk" and "meat" in other states and contexts as meatless and diary-free products continue to grow in popularity. Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Dakota have similar anti-veggie-meat labeling laws. In Wisconsin, lawmakers have considered banning non-dairy products from using the word "milk," such as beverages labeled almond milk.

The latter issue led former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb to quip last year that "You know, an almond doesn't lactate." He said that the Food and Drug Administration is working on a guidance for the use of the term.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/judge-serves-up-sizzling-rebuke-of-arkansas-anti-veggie-meat-labeling-law/
Previous Stories:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/12/04/1425220
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/07/07/1443201
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/26/2315236


Original Submission

Lab-Grown Meat: Never Cost-Competitive? 42 comments

Lab-grown meat is supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story.

Splashy headlines have long overshadowed inconvenient truths about biology and economics. Now, extensive new research suggests the industry may be on a billion-dollar crash course with reality.

[...] [In March], the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit that represents the alternative protein industry, published a techno-economic analysis (TEA) that projected the future costs of producing a kilogram of cell-cultured meat. Prepared independently for GFI by the research consulting firm CE Delft, and using proprietary data provided under NDA by 15 private companies, the document showed how addressing a series of technical and economic barriers could lower the production price from over $10,000 per pound today to about $2.50 per pound over the next nine years—an astonishing 4,000-fold reduction.

In the press push that followed, GFI claimed victory. "New studies show cultivated meat can have massive environmental benefits and be cost-competitive by 2030," it trumpeted, suggesting that a new era of cheap, accessible cultured protein is rapidly approaching. The finding is critical for GFI and its allies. If private, philanthropic, and public sector investors are going to put money into cell-cultured meat, costs need to come down quickly. Most of us have a limited appetite for 50-dollar lab-grown chicken nuggets.

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(1)
  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:02AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:02AM (#975354)

    I'm so excited for the taste of something new that's meat-like with a meat-like texture! Meat is where it's at. A mixture of pork and beef? Can you capture that bitter taste of sadness and shrieking death that I've grown so accustomed to in my meat products?

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by DimestoreProstitute on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:04AM (8 children)

    by DimestoreProstitute (9480) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:04AM (#975355)

    I can finally try unicorn, manticore, minotaur!

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:08AM (1 child)

      by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:08AM (#975358)

      Don't forget mermaid.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:54AM

        by looorg (578) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:54AM (#975369)

        Had Mermaid, very fishy.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:54AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:54AM (#975368)

      You simply must try the horse cock.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:31AM (1 child)

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:31AM (#975374) Homepage

        That is known as "pizzle," and yes, people eat it.

        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:50PM

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:50PM (#975640) Journal

          Most people don't get it right from the source still attached to the animal, but hey, you do you. ...and the horse.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:20PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:20PM (#975483) Journal

      pak'ma'ra [fandom.com]

      Mmmmm. Carry-on eaters! Yum.

      --
      Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 25 2020, @05:26PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @05:26PM (#975544) Journal

      I can finally try unicorn, manticore, minotaur!

      Yeah, but they're fake! So you're getting Impossible Horse Meat, instead.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:07AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:07AM (#975356)

    A recent Nielsen report found that plant-based meat alternative purchases went up 279.8 percent last week after Americans were instructed to stay home during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

    That's what happens when some asshole clears out all the meat and TP at the grocery store.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:10PM (#975436)

      Ha! Good point.

      I've had the Impossible Burger from Burger King and it tastes so close to a real burger that you can't tell the difference. But Burger King cooks it on the same grill as the real beef burgers (for whatever definition of 'real beef' qualifies for a fast food restaurant), so it's entirely possible the entire meat flavor is just absorbed from the beef. The Beyond Meat burgers, though, taste different enough from real beef that you know you're eating a substitute but you don't mind. We've also switched to making tacos, chili, and meat sauce for our pasta with the Beyond Meat stuff most of the time. It's still expensive, but it's really tasty. ( I know I sound like a shill. I'm not. I've just wanted to switch to vegetarian for ethical and environmental reasons for years. My favorite actual meat is still ground bison. )

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by istartedi on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:14AM (8 children)

    by istartedi (123) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:14AM (#975359) Journal

    The best thing about imaginary meat is that a square meal made from it has negative mass. It's a great way to lose pounds.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:56AM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:56AM (#975370)

      That fake shit is 33% peanut oil. Your mass ain't going anywhere if you binge on those motherfuckers. Stick with Big Macs for the added health value.

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:35AM (5 children)

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:35AM (#975375) Homepage

        That may be true, but even a cynic like me has tasted veggieburgers that are so close to a beef patty, even with the "bloody" juices. The cheese is the hard part in all this vegan crap and they need to just fucking give up on vegan cheese and use real cheese.

        Also, once had a vegan Oreo cake for a coworker's birthday, that shit was the bomb. It tasted like a lot of rich creamery butter.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:52AM (4 children)

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:52AM (#975409) Journal

          Vegetarian > vegan. But...

          Real Vegan Cheese: Coming From a Yeast to You [soylentnews.org]

          They will probably perfect "lab-grown" milk and cheese eventually. But they have to make it cheaper than the "real" thing to get my attention.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:51PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:51PM (#975425)

            Considering the current crisis with cheese is where to put it all, I doubt it can be cost competative:
            https://www.foodandwine.com/news/american-cheese-surplus [foodandwine.com]

            TLDR: the FDA encourages milk over-production, milk doesn't last, so they turn the surplus into cheese and store it in a strategic reserve for war-time. Those reserves are getting too full of cheese.

          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:54PM (1 child)

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:54PM (#975455) Journal

            They will probably perfect "lab-grown" milk and cheese eventually.

            Yeah, what's become of "cultured" meat? That's what I'm waiting for, real meat, without the hoof and mouth disease.

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:21PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:21PM (#975575)

              a cow without eyes, ears and no brain.
              beyond meat is eye watering expensive, yes?
              they should switch to producing the "machinery" to make that "beyond beef" instead, so the finished product doesn't have to be oil-shipped half around the world.
              what is thru for electrical solar is also thru for bio-solar: the sun shines everywhere (ofc some places probably still need to oil-energy-ship the ingredients that go into the "beyond beef" machinery from places where the ingredients grow).
              tetrapak makes machines to make terapak ... something like that?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:10AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:10AM (#975383) Journal

        Whoosh.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:24AM (3 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:24AM (#975360) Journal

    Fake imaginary meat? So you only pretend to imagine meat?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:27AM (2 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:27AM (#975384) Homepage
      Maybe we're supposed to imagine it's fake meat as we eat it?

      Not that I ever will. And if I ever see anyone order one, I'm ordering 3 steaks rather than 1, so that the net animal suffering is increased by their virtue signalling.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:32AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:32AM (#975385) Journal

        Maybe we're supposed to imagine it's fake meat as we eat it?

        No, that would be imaginary fake meat.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:16PM (#975438)

        > ...ordering 3 steaks rather than 1

        Or just order a large steak in West (central) Texas. Here, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/12/11/zentners-daughter-san-angelo-closing-end-2019/4401858002/ [usatoday.com] the largest was free if you could eat it in one sitting. Someone at another table ordered one, it was thick and hanging over the edges of a large plate.

  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:50AM (5 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday March 25 2020, @09:50AM (#975388) Homepage
    An admission of failure?

    It says to me "our fake meat products taste nothing like actual meat" to me. Which is what we gourmands have been saying all along.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by DaTrueDave on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:53PM (3 children)

      by DaTrueDave (3144) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:53PM (#975426)

      Uh, I get why someone might not want to eat this stuff, but in blind taste tests, even the snootiest of foodies has had a difficult time picking out Impossible Burgers from ground beef burgers.

      I'm not eating it regularly unless it's cheaper than real beef, but, with ground beef/hamburger, it tastes the same.

      (Impossible, not any of the other wannabes)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:22PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:22PM (#975520)

        in blind taste tests, even the snootiest of foodies has had a difficult time picking out Impossible Burgers from ground beef burgers... it tastes the same.

        Citation needed.

        I know it's an "other wannabe," but my understanding is that a Beyond Burger is very comparable to Impossible Burger, and I could absolutely tell the difference between Beyond Burger and a beef burger. The other annecdotes I've seen (such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIv5kedZoKs [youtube.com] ) agree with this.

        So where have you heard that an Impossible Burger is indistinguishable from a beef burger, especially to foodies?

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:50AM

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:50AM (#975738) Homepage
          t's been all over the mass media. It's almost as if the producers have been spamming out press releases.
          Also, don't drink wine with the fake meat, it gives you cancer, but make sure you take a glass of wine with it instead, as that staves off cancer. I learnt that from the same media.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:43AM

        by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:43AM (#975732) Homepage
        Beef in the US tastes, and feels, different from European beef, because of the coctail of hormones you permit. So it's entirely possible they've mimicked that taste, not the richer taste we're used to over here.

        Foodies, in particular the snootiest ones, tend to be the most Dunning Kruger afflicted idiots in the world. Note how wine "experts" can't even reliably tell a red wine from a white wine. Their opinions matter even less than what I pay for them. When they first appeared on the merket there was a story here on SN, and several rando posters reported something along the lines of "first bite is quite convincing, but something starts to grate and it just tastes wrong, unpalateably so, after a while". No snootiness, more honesty - out of the mouths of babes.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:09PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:09PM (#975513)

      Impossible Burgers are significantly better than Beyond Meats; but its the preparation, bread, and toppings that really make a difference.

      However if you get one from Burger King, it is going to taste pretty much as lousy as any other Whopper. I would not recommend.

      They taste good with bacon on them, too. :)

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @10:58AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @10:58AM (#975395)

    i can't wait until they start offering their version of long pork!

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:30PM (5 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:30PM (#975422) Journal

      Yeah, second that. Ever since I read cannibals in Papua New Guinea call human flesh, 'long pork,' I've been curious if it really does taste like that.

      Just kidding. How would we ever know that without a blind taste test?

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:57PM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:57PM (#975429) Journal

        Lab-grown human meat. Eat your favorite celebrity. Coming soon?

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @01:45PM (#975451)

        >> How would we ever know that without a blind taste test?

        Wait about three more weeks until the epidemic really kicks in... there will be a lot of vegans willing to eat the homeless once they run out of carrots and lettuce to eat.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:16PM (#975517)

        You're curious if it tastes long?

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:52AM

        by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:52AM (#975742) Homepage
        Anthropologists would know.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:22AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @11:22AM (#975402)

    Too bad the nutrition profiles don't match.
    Too bad it's full of anti-nutrients.
    Too bad of all the processed water needing to be piped around compared to the free rain water for grass ranging cows.
    Too bad of all the poisoned ground hogs and other wildlife which die agonizing deaths from pesticides compared to the single cows which get suddenly shot in the head.
    Too bad of having to mine things out of the Earth and burn natural gas to create fertilizer instead of letting nature naturally recycle the topsoil in a carbon neutral way.
    Too bad of all the fertilizer runoff destroying downstream ecosystems.
    Etc...

    Eat the cows. It's the more humane and environmentally friendly choice. Plus it's healthier so you'll have a better and longer life with lower health costs.

    Granted some of that occurs for growing cow feed, but it's still more for the components of impossible meat.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:59PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:59PM (#975431)

      If cows were still largely grass-fed you would have a valid point, but they are not. Generally, they are fed with crops, and thus have the same problems as crops, just worse because of the higher trophic levels.

      Also, I was led to believe that the main problem with veg-based meat is that the nutrition profiles lined up almost too well, thus negating any health benefits to giving up meat.

      I hadn't even heard the term anti-nutrients before, but it seems that those are part of a regulatory system to keep you from loading up on a single nutrient to an unhealthy degree:
      https://greensmoothiegirl.com/anti-nutrients/ [greensmoothiegirl.com]

      I say all of this as someone that eats mostly meat. I know it is unhealthy, but it just is so tasty.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:45PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:45PM (#975495)

        No no cows eat for free. It's called externalization. Set the cows loose - who the fuck knows what they do - wait a year and they come back full of steak and sweet sweet profit.

        • (Score: 2) by Gault.Drakkor on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:47PM

          by Gault.Drakkor (1079) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:47PM (#975595)

          I agree that what you describe is true for some cows.

          For the majority of cows however, that is simple not true at all. Feed lots are a thing. Something like 30%-50% of all crops are grown specifically for animal fodder.

          Look at section on cattle feeding: Then look to how much is dedicated to grazing. (only a few sentences vs a whole section).

          https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/sector-at-a-glance/ [usda.gov]

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:52PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:52PM (#975598) Journal

          No no cows eat for free.

          I thought in some food places it is kids that eat for free.

          --
          Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:11PM (2 children)

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:11PM (#975515)

      Wtf is an anti-nutrient?

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 26 2020, @12:21AM (1 child)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday March 26 2020, @12:21AM (#975649) Journal

        GP probably means phytic acid/phytates, possibly oxalic acid as well.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:13PM

          by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:13PM (#975944)

          Ahh, thanks. I did a search for the word and got nothing but "natural news"-style garbage sites talking about it.

          --
          "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:28PM (7 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:28PM (#975465) Journal

    Impossible CEO says it can make a meat 'unlike anything that you've had before'

    I don't want fake meat that is UNLIKE real meat.

    The CEO seems to not understand what a meat substitute is supposed to be.

    I also can offer you substitute light bulbs that have a new kind of light called "darkness".

    --
    Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:34PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:34PM (#975470) Journal

      They already make a substitute widely regarded as the one that is most indistinguishable from real meat.

      A new product can open up a new market.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 4, Touché) by everdred on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:56PM (5 children)

      by everdred (110) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @02:56PM (#975476) Journal

      I don't want fake meat that is UNLIKE real meat.

      With all due respect, how would you know?

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by HiThere on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:11PM (1 child)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:11PM (#975482) Journal

        "Do you like green eggs and ham?"

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday March 25 2020, @06:00PM

          by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @06:00PM (#975550)

          Hell yes, just throw some pesto into the omelet... Yum. You can leave off the ham.

          --
          The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:25PM (2 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:25PM (#975484) Journal

        I don't want fake meat that is UNLIKE real meat.
             

        With all due respect, how would you know?

        If the fake meat is LIKE real meat, then I might not know the difference.

        If the fake meat is UNLIKE real meat, then I would definitely know the difference, because it is unlike.

        Plus the label says it is fake meat. But the label might not be available since someone self-isolating might find the packaging label more edible than the fake meat inside. And almost anything is edible, at least once.

        --
        Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
        • (Score: 2) by everdred on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:19PM (1 child)

          by everdred (110) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @07:19PM (#975574) Journal

          I could have been clearer: how do you know whether you'll like it or not?

          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:50PM

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:50PM (#975597) Journal

            If it is unlike real meat, then my assumption is that I will not like it.

            I have considered trying it. At some point. Probably not anytime soon now with covid-19. I believe my local burger king has a fake meat burger. I was talking with a friend about getting one and splitting it to compare what we thought of it.

            --
            Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:38PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:38PM (#975492)

    There is no such thing.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:47PM (#975497)

      Mabye someone ate it?

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:48PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 25 2020, @08:48PM (#975596) Journal

      Vinyl is Genuine Imitation Leathertm.

      --
      Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:59PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:59PM (#975508)

    But what if plant-based meat wasn't just a substitute for an already-existing marketplace, and instead, it started to make meat that has never existed?

    Oh, so like if their brand name actually made sense, instead of trying to sound sexy but not really meaning anything?

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @04:47PM (#975528)

    Impossible Foods needs a fake, imaginary CEO. Nothing's better than the real thing.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday March 25 2020, @05:51PM

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Wednesday March 25 2020, @05:51PM (#975549) Journal

    1. Feed plant-based meat to piglet until it is ready to be slaughtered.
    2. Bacon!

    --
    Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
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